Burglary at VW:Thieves Steal Secrets About Merkel's Armored Limousine

Burglars have stolen confidential technical information about the armored limousines used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top politicians. The theft poses a potential security risk to the country's leaders, according to a German newspaper.

Thieves who broke into offices of carmaker Volkswagen stole laptop computers containing secret specifications of armored limousines used by Chancellor Angela Merkel, her predecessor Gerhard Schröder and the leader of the Social Democrat party, Kurt Beck.

The laptops contain information about how heavily armored the vehicles are and what type of bullets they can withstand, Berliner Morgenpost newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"For example if someone finds out that politician X uses a vehicle with protection category 4 which is protected from rounds fired out of a Magnum 44 revolver, he knows he will have to bring along a G1 rifle to endanger his target," the newspaper quoted an unnamed police officer as saying.

The laptops along with flat-screen PC monitors were stolen on September 21 from the offices of a distribution center in Teltow, eastern Germany, run by VW and its luxury auto unit Audi, the newspaper reported.

But investigators believe the burglars were ordinary criminals who were only interested in stealing expensive computer equipment rather than the sensitive data on the hard drives.

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